The Alachua City Commission confirmed Assistant City Manager Rodolfo Valladares as interim city manager during its regular meeting on Monday.  

Attendees, including neighboring city and county commissioners, packed Alachua City Hall, where Commissioner Dayna Williams made the motion to appoint Valladares, which Vice Mayor Shirley Green Brown seconded.  

The nomination was solidified after a 4-1 vote with Commissioner Jacob Fletcher in dissent.  

“I am honored for this election, and the answer is yes,” Valladares said after the vote. 

According to the city’s website, Valladares brought over 20 years of experience to his role as assistant city manager, where he planned, organized and managed city operations under the city manager. 

Valladares also worked for eight years as the city’s director of public services, where he managed public utilities for residents and businesses. 

Valladares’ interim city manager contract comes with a 10% increase in base salary and gives him the option of resuming duties as a city employee at the end of its 12-month term.  

City Attorney Marian Rush will work with Valladares to draft the remainder of the contract and present it at the next regular meeting on June 23. 

The need for an interim city manager in Alachua came after former City Manager Mike DaRoza announced his resignation on May 26. His two-week notice ended the day before Monday’s meeting and came amidst a pending investigation into the resignations of three city planners in February.  

DaRoza, who one of the former city planners claimed operated under the influence of his predecessor, Adam Boukari, distributed copies of his resignation letter to the commissioners after eight years of working for the city and spending the last three as city manager. His contract as city manager was set to expire on July 25. 

DaRoza’s letter and former interim city manager contract were included as exhibits with the interim city manager agenda item for Monday’s meeting, as well as a one-way communication email from Fletcher to the other commissioners, city manager, city attorney and deputy city clerk. 

Fletcher’s email, sent on May 29, expressed concerns over an attempt to appoint Valladares as interim city manager outside of a publicly noticed meeting without action of the full commission, as well as about Valladares’ consideration for the position. 

He said Valladares and Alachua’s Public Information Officer, Brent Lanier, called him on May 29 to tell him Mayor Walter Welch accepted DaRoza’s resignation, and that Welch and the other commissioners were in support of Valladares as interim. 

Fletcher stated that, if true that the mayor and commissioners had privately coordinated support for Valladares, it would be either an attempt to circumvent Alachua’s city charter or violate Florida law as a form of vote “polling.”   

He also added that Valladares is named in a letter from one of the three former city planners being used in the resignation investigation, which created a conflict of interest. 

Fletcher reinforced the ideas he communicated in his email during Monday’s meeting. Considering the investigation, he said the appointment of the interim city manager isn’t just procedural; it’s symbolic.  

“What we’re doing here is we’re asking the public to trust us after a wave of staff resignations from what people are feeling as governance failures,” he said. “What we need here is someone who is operationally competent and is untainted by controversy.” 

Williams, who voted against pursuing an investigation into the planners’ resignations at the previous regular meeting, responded that Fletcher’s one-way communication email was completely unacceptable and potentially a violation of sunshine laws. 

She said by sending it, Fletcher called the city attorney of 24 years a liar because Rush had already stated her confidence that there wasn’t outside influence on DaRoza. Williams called Valladares a good man and a man of faith, and said Fletcher was assuming him guilty before innocent instead of innocent before guilty. 

“If you want to use the media as your mouthpiece, I can’t stop you,” she said. “You have every right to bring them all in here and video our meetings and have it go to the press and do whatever it is you think you need to do. But I can tell you now that this commission needs to work together as a unified body to move this city forward in the right direction.” 

Williams also said she did have a conversation with Valladares about DaRoza’s resignation and his own appointment as interim city manager outside of a public meeting. 

She said Valladares told her, “Madam commissioner, our former city manager has submitted his resignation, and our mayor has accepted it. If the commission chooses, I am more than willing and able to step in as interim city manager.” 

Williams said their conversation did not amount to vote polling or circumventing the city’s charter, which she said Fletcher falsely accused her of. She said Valladares’ appointment was only an interim position and that she would be open to a national search for a city manager. 

“Not only are you attempting to assassinate the character of Mr. Valladares, you are borderline slandering each one of your fellow commissioners up here, including the mayor,” Williams said. “I will not have my character impugned in public, or in private, or in blind copy emails.” 

Commissioner Jennifer Ringersen, Welch and Green Brown also said they found Fletcher’s email appalling, divisive to the commission, and that Valladares was the best interim city manager candidate for continuity moving forward. 

Fletcher responded that he sent his email, which he said was permitted by sunshine law and didn’t prove slanderous because it never mentioned specific commissioners, to make sure the commission protected itself from the liability of appointing an interim city manager outside of a public meeting.  

He said Valladares may be the most qualified candidate, but how the commission handled his appointment as interim city manager was still concerning. Fletcher said pursuing an investigation would help the commission make a more informed decision for city manager candidates. 

“Let’s establish the facts and then move on from there. But at this point, we don’t have facts,” Fletcher said. “What I did was correct and right in my eyes to help the voters and the community and to bring transparency to this board, and I will keep doing that.” 

During public comment, High Springs City Commissioner Katherine Weitz encouraged the Alachua City Commission that finding a new city manager would take time and that they should listen to their employees for candidate input, as she learned to do when High Springs hired a new city manager last year. 

Community members also expressed support for Valladares and his character, support for Fletcher’s email and pushed the commission to not ignore the “elephant in the room” of the investigation. 

Commentors called on them to continue pursuing the investigation and provide them with an update on it, which the commission voted against at the beginning of Monday’s meeting. 

“You guys are feeding the suspicion monster,” said one speaker named Pam. “You are making people feel that there’s something going on that you don’t want them to know about, and it’s not OK. It’s not OK with us. We’re not going to drop it and it needs to be investigated.” 

Williams concluded public comment by asking Rush to update the public on the investigation.  

Rush said she’d begun searching for independent attorneys outside the area with expertise in planning and zoning, but that on top of balancing their schedules and vetting potential conflicts of interest, DaRoza’s resignation had since become her priority.  

She said she would get back to the investigation on Tuesday and give a report on it at the next regular meeting on June 23.  

“I have heard loud and clear that everybody wants to know what happened,” Rush said. “I don’t want this to be elongated; I do believe that it’s important to bring something back. I think people also want healing and closure, and I think those are all three things that are trying to be accomplished in doing that.” 

Editor’s note: This story was updated with additional content.